COLLABORATIVE FOR THE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF BORDERS

CFEAB needed a more formal and useful way to display student research and visualizations, and was also interested in a fun visual aesthetic to draw in website viewers. Through our initial consultation, we determined that we would need to craft a design that would convey both the professionalism required of a research initiative, and the subject matter of the Texas-Mexico border. One specific piece of functionality CFEAB requested was the ability for users to download data from tables and visualizations posted on their website.

We met the challenge of combining formality and fun with a clean design that utilized simple illustrations and muted secondary colors to retain the clean look of classic research projects, while also featuring lively gradients reminiscent of San Antonio’s annual “Fiesta” event to emphasize the initiative’s focus on the Texas-Mexico border. While initially we used a left-hand menu, on our second iteration we moved toward a top navigation to conserve space and give the website a cleaner look. The improved space allocation allowed us to implement a right hand column to display recently published research. To accommodate CFEAB’s request for downloadable data with visualizations, we recommended use of Tableau visualizations, which allow for several types of downloads on the viewer’s end, and implemented an example visualization using some of CFEAB’s existing data.

We redesigned CFEAB’s logo and website, including an upgraded color palette, organization and aesthetic to create more visual interest for users while staying true to CFEAB’s professionalism as a research initiative and dedication to informing the public of the economics of the Texas-Mexico border.